Strip curtains are used to minimize the passage of air, light, dust, noise, smoke and the like through a doorway without blocking persons and equipment from passing through. They are often located in commercial environments where there is a high traffic flow of persons, equipment and supplies through a passageway. The smaller strip curtains typically have multiple strips of plastic or vinyl hung side by side from hangers mounted in a track. Access to the track for loading the hangers is gained from its two ends. Once inserted into an end of the track the hangers are slid in the track channel until the curtain is fully formed with main body portions of the curtain strips depending from the hangers side by side and often overlapping one another to some extent. In this manner a spreadable barrier is formed that restricts the flow of air, light, dust, and the like through the passageway while yet permitting people and equipment to pass by momentarily spreading the curtain strips apart.
Over time contact by equipment wears and damages the curtain strips leading to a need to replace individual strips. Replacement of the individual strips however is tedious. Typically it is the central portion of the curtain that takes the most beating and wears the most. Thus in order to replace a single strip, all of the other strips between it and an access end of the track must also be removed and replaced even though they are not damaged.
Larger strip curtains, such as those used in warehouses and loading docks, usually do not have their curtain strips mounted in tracks because their weight would tend to tear them loose from their hangers, to which they are secured by pegs, as when forklifts and other heavy equipment engage them. Instead, they typically have their strips top ends bolted to an angle iron by a number of bolts and wing nuts. Although individual strips may be replaced in this type curtain without temporary replacement of undamaged strips, they are nevertheless relatively tedious and cumbersome to replace. Their replacement requires the extraction and replacement of many bolts through holes in the top ends of the heavy strips rather than the mere sliding of a hanger along a track.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need remains for a strip curtain that may have heavy, quite sizable strips and yet which possesses the ability to have its individual strips replaced with relative ease.